Rep. Steve King: Obama Too Weak for Putin Meeting

President Barack Obama doesn't have a strong hand or the dominant personality needed to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that's why the United States backed out of a September one-on-one meeting, says Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

"If they neither fear you nor respect you it's going to be awfully hard to talk them into letting (NSA leaker Edward) Snowden come back into the United States in our custody," King said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "Hannity."

Even a dominant personality with a weaker hand would allow Obama to walk away with something, he added.

The White House announced earlier Wednesday that Obama would scrub a planned September summit over "disspointment" that Russia had granted Snowden temporary asylum.

Long before the Snowden affair, Obama and Putin looked ill-at-ease together in photos from from 2012 G-20 Summit.

"Putin looks into the eyes of Barack Obama," King said. "If there was a strong personality there, a strong leader and someone that was willing to put out a strategy, Putin would react to that, but instead he's pushing back on the United States.

"I see the hand he's playing, and it's hard for us to hold our image in the world if we let him continue."

President Barack Obama doesn't have a strong hand or the dominant personality needed to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that's why the United States backed out of a September one-on-one meeting, says Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
If they neither fear you...